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The price of gas getting you down? -Back yard refinery-

04-30-2008, 10:19 AM

Kinda off topic, but not completely. Going to weld up the stands and plumbing for it.

Just getting into the Bio-Diesel concept. The commercial home refineries are expensive. $4000.00 and up. One can be made at home for around one to two hundred dollars. If its worth having its worth making yourself.

Before I get flamed for the price of commercial bio diesel let me repeat myself. I'm going to be making it myself. I have some Chinese restaurants lined up to give me the used oil already. 0.75c VS 4.05 per gallon!

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No need to re-jet. I think some cars/trucks work better than others. Sounds like the guy in front of you didn't wash the diesel before putting it in his tank. There are trace amounts of soap in the oil made by the refining process. If not washed out it could make your eyes burn.

PS. It will smell like take out! So if your on a diet you decide for yourself.

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Good luck with the project, I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Just a word of caution though. I saw on the news a while ago where a guy got busted for tax evasion by making his own fuel. Money for road maintenance (and whatever else they decide to do with it) comes from the tax on fuel.

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Good luck with the project, I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Just a word of caution though. I saw on the news a while ago where a guy got busted for tax evasion by making his own fuel. Money for road maintenance (and whatever else they decide to do with it) comes from the tax on fuel.

Pay un to Caesar what is Caesar's....... Ya, you still will have to pay the man.

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As long as you have a supplier lined up and can keep them, good for you.

I know several guys that have either gone the home made bio route or run WVO. The big problem that they have is now many places are realizing that the "trash" oil has a value. Their oil supliers have started to sell the waste oil to companies that collect it and sell it to bio producers. The "free" oil is gone and they are stuck still paying for the equipment / conversions that they got.

Don't forget that the new diesel motor will have an expense in itself. A reman motor for my truck is $6-7K. Be advised that there have been a lot of problems with cloged filters in standard diesel engine that have been converted to bio. If you go with used parts expect to change fuel filters very frequently as the bio loosens up old deposits.

Also remember that most bio will gell at temps below about 50F. In cool or cold weather you will have to cut it with std diesel at least 50/50 to be able to use it. Still a savings, but if you've ever had a diesel engine that wont start due to gelled fuel, its not fun.

Have you considdered what you will do with the waste residue? From my understanding it's about 30-40% of the final product.

I looked into the idea. I use between 35-55gal of std diesel / week. That would mean procesing about a minimum of 55-75 gal of waste oil each week. The collection hasssles plus the fact that most places are starting to sell the waste oil to collection companies for $ just didn't make it worth it. If you can do it for $200 go for it.

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Good point. There have even been instances where people have been caught stealing the oil. Once it is in the collection tank it belongs to the oil co. You have to set up your own 55gal drum for the guys to use. I think it depends largely upon where you live. Here in Los Angeles the restaurants pay to have the oil removed. The jell issue is not a problem here 95% of the time.
I drive on average 100 plus miles a day for work. The savings to me will be like getting a extra paycheck each month. Ya gotta do the math for your own circumstances to see if its a good alternative for yourself.

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Blue Collar Moto definately look into the waste by product issue. Your driving sounds a lot like mine. My 2000 7.3 get 15 mpg with 3.73's. The 08' 6.4 a stinkin 8 mpg. You will have a lot of oil to process and a lot of waste. Don't forget that you will need storage capasity and most likely a pump to transfer. Gravity is ok but thats a ton, literally, of weight to have up in the air. Diesel is a bit over 7 lb / gal.

I have a 115gal transfer tank in the F250 with a 12v pump and filter, a 275 gal home heating oil tank with a 115v pump and filter, and several 55 gal drums with a hand crank pump, that I use for fuel. You will definately want to get a filter for your pump. The kind I use screw on like an oil filter and have a water absorbing media in them. When they fill up with water they stop flowing. Water will be one of the biggest problems. Water in diesel injectors will quickly get VERY expensive.

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Cool guys.
I have it pretty well planed out. Going to do a solar pre heat box to keep the stored raw waste oil at a nice temp before going threw the second set of filters. First set will just be a cloth rag. Second filter 20 micron before processing. Third & fourth smaller still before going into the tank.

Pumps that most $4000.00 systems use are just cheap $30.00 pumps from Harbor Freight.

As far as the byproduct disposal goes, I'm not sure about all that yet. Still doing research on a few things. Making soap out of it is not recommended despite what the commercial sellers of the equipment would have you believe. I know that some of it can go down the drain as it is just soap water. No different than washing your dishes. The solids can be processed more to be made safe for the trash man. (set out to dry)

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i heard a rumour up here in thegreat white north, as of 2010 all vehicles soldin canada and us, will gave to get 35mpg from factory.is this a load of b.s.?? im sure the diesels would be able to if the quality of our diesel was a good as europes. i was told by the head mechanic of Halliburton(who attended a fuel symposium on 2007) that N.A. diesel is a much lower quality than europes and the hopes the governments have for emmisions and ave mpg was just a pipe dream. anyone have any thoughts???

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That may well be true for passenger vehicles. Heavy trucks could very well be exempted. It's easy to get a diesel car to get 50 mpg+. The VW jettas do right now. Thats a bit different than an 19K F550 or a 80K Mack.

It wouldn't surprise me to see medium trucks get that kind of milage, if they just cocentrate on milage. My older F250 can get close to 20 on the highway and with an aditional .8 OD could easily get 25mpg if you tweeaked the trasnmision shifts.